The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has determined that the water at North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune was contaminated four years earlier than originally thought. As a result, tens of thousands more Marines and their families could be eligible to receive government health care for illnesses resulting from consumption of the water.

In its letter to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the ATSDR said computer modeling shows that drinking water in the residential Hadnot Point area was unsafe for human consumption as far back as 1953, the Huffington Post said. Just last year, President Barack Obama signed a law granting health care and screening to Marines and their relatives on the base between 1957 and 1987. Groundwater sampling first showed contamination on the base in the early 1980s but Marines did not begin closing wells until 1984 and 1985, the Huffington Post said.

Health officials believe as many as 1 million people may have been exposed to tainted water. A Marine Corps spokeswoman estimated last week that the time line expansion adds 33,000 to 53,000 to the number of people at Lejeune while the water was contaminated. The Hadnot Point water system supplied the barracks where the majority of the Marines lived, as well as the Naval Hospital, unmarried officer barracks and some family housing areas

The head of the toxic substance registry said in a letter to General Allison Hickey, VA undersecretary for benefits, that a preliminary water modeling report revealed that the period covered under the 2012 legislation didn’t go back far enough,” the Huffington Post said. Hickey said that volatile organic compounds exceeded maximum contaminant levels at Hadnot Point as early as August 1953. The letter was made public last week at a meeting among the agency’s community assistance panel. During the meeting, a VA representative said the approval rate for claims related to the water contamination has been about 25 percent, to date, the Huffington Post said.

More Marines may be eligible for Camp Lejeune health compensation following new report

Tens of thousands of U.S. Marines and their family members may soon be eligible for federal health care after new information shows that water at North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune was contaminated as far back as 1953, four years that previously thought.

According to an AP report this week, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has informed the Dept. of Veterans Affairs that new computer models show that drinking water in the Hadnot Point area of Camp Lejeune was unfit for human consumption as far back as 1953. Now, more than a million Marines and their family members were likely exposed to toxic drinking water while they lived on base.

The Hadnot Point water system provided drinking water for the largest residential areas at Camp Lejeune. Most of the Marines living on base as well as the Naval Hospital, and barracks for unmarried Marines officers were served by the water from Hadnot Point. The water became contaminated decades ago from leaking fuel tanks and dry cleaning solvents found in the groundwater at Camp Lejeune. The water has been contaminated with toxins like benzene and other volatile organic compounds. More than a million gallons of fuel may have been leaked from underground storage tanks at Camp Lejeune.

For nearly as long as the water has been contaminated, military families and soldiers living at Camp Lejeune suspected that the drinking water was responsible for any number of health problems, including cancer. There have been at least 82 Marines men that have been diagnosed with breast cancer after living at Camp Lejeune.

The Marines became aware of this contamination in the early 1980s but only started to close some drinking water wells at Camp Lejeune later that decade. Still, many soldiers and their family members who are left dealing with the health complications caused by the tainted drinking water on base believe the military ignored calls to test groundwater and were negligent in their response to learning of the contamination and for allowing so many people over such a long period of time to be exposed to the tainted drinking water.

Last year, President Barack Obama signed a law that granted federal health care to hundreds of thousands of Marines veterans and their families who were affected by the poisoned water at Camp Lejeune. Based on the new federal evidence that’s come to light recently, as many as 55,000 more Marines and their families could be eligible for those same benefits.

RALEIGH — Tens of thousands more Marines and their relatives could be eligible for government health care for their illnesses now that a federal agency determined that the water at North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune was contaminated four years earlier than previously thought.

In a letter to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry said computer modeling shows that drinking water in the residential Hadnot Point area was unsafe for human consumption as far back as 1953. President Barack Obama signed a law last year granting health care and screening to Marines and their dependents on the base between 1957 and 1987.

“This is yet another piece of the puzzle that’s coming together and slowly exposing the extent of the contamination at Camp Lejeune – and the Marine Corps’ culpability and negligence,” said Mike Partain, a Marine’s son who was born at the southeast North Carolina base and who says he is one of at least 82 men diagnosed with breast cancer. “This is four years overdue.” Read the entire article CLICK>>

Camp Lejeune water contamination

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The Camp Lejeune water contamination problem occurred at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune from 1953 to 1987.[1] During that time, United States Marine Corps (USMC) servicemembers and their families living at the base apparently bathed in and ingested tap water that was contaminated with harmful chemicals. An undetermined number of former base residents later developed cancer or other ailments, which many blame on the contaminated drinking water. Victims claim that USMC leaders concealed knowledge of the problem and did not act properly in trying to resolve it or notify former base residents that their health might be at risk. In 2009 the U.S. federal government initiated investigations into the allegations of contaminated water and failures by U.S. Marine officials to act on the issue. In August 2012, President Obama signed the Janey Ensminger Act into law to begin providing medical care for people who may have been affected by the contamination. Read the entire article CLICK>>